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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Let there be snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

T R E 4 5 O N

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Let’s finish the job.

“Look, it’s not against the rules anywhere, but a black woman with power was dating and there has to be something wrong with that.”

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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You are here: Home / Just a Quick FYI

Just a Quick FYI

by John Cole|  December 31, 20133:00 pm| 59 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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The Red State Editor that Mistermix was talking about has quite the history of being an asshole.

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Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    December 31, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    I’m pretty sure ‘ten or more years experience as a professional asshole’ is one of the requirements for a RS front-page gig.

    The commenters are just amateur assholes.

  2. 2.

    janeform

    December 31, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    Speaking of assholes, from TPM: “Langone described the Pope’s comments about a ‘culture of prosperity’ as ‘exclusionary’ statements that may make some of the rich ‘incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.'”

  3. 3.

    eric

    December 31, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    @janeform: horse, barn door.

  4. 4.

    cokane

    December 31, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    his operation was for liver failure too haha

  5. 5.

    Bex

    December 31, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    No wonder the asshole’s liver wanted to give up.

  6. 6.

    chopper

    December 31, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    mah nishtanah?

  7. 7.

    kc

    December 31, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    Howe has a long history of sitting in front of his computer drinking vodka and tweeting about it:

    Well, far be it from ME to judge him for drinking vodka. Though I do judge him, harshly, for tweeting.

    Anyhoo, I guess with all that drunk-tweeting and stuff, he didn’t have time or money to get health insurance, so I am glad that my fellow libtards were so generous to him in his time of need.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    December 31, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    @janeform:

    Do they ever take responsibility for themselves? The Pope’s comments make them incapable of feeling compassion? So where was the compassion before this Pope made comments?

  9. 9.

    eric

    December 31, 2013 at 3:26 pm

    @MomSense: truth is, i could care fucking less about their compassion, just the coin. give the coin and pronounce yourself master of the universe. i dont care about their “souls” given that they clearly do not.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    December 31, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    @janeform:

    “Langone described the Pope’s comments about a ‘culture of prosperity’ as ‘exclusionary’ statements that may make some of the rich ‘incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.’”

    If you were incapable of feeling compassion for the poor after what the Pope said, you were incapable of it before. You’re just looking for somebody to blame it on.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    December 31, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Sometimes I console myself by thinking that history will not be kind to these people and yet I have kids and am frustrated that we can’t seem to get our act together to do right by them because we are too busy refuting science, poorshaming, and being greedy.

    I mean we have had decades of people dying, losing their homes and going bankrupt all because they got sick when our health insurance/ health care delivery system was so messed up. We are finally doing something about it that is basically patient protections plus a mechanism to provide group rates for people on the individual market and this is somehow worse than people dying and losing their homes because they got sick??

  12. 12.

    Mudge

    December 31, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    It appears he has terminal assholiness. Occasional massive flare-ups. No cure.

  13. 13.

    Yatsuno

    December 31, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    @MomSense: Yes. Becuz socialism.

    Wanna tie a wingnut in knots? Ask them why exactly socialism is bad. I’ve never got anything but a sputtering about dependence and bootstraps with an occasional “WOLVERINES!!!” thrown in there.

  14. 14.

    Anoniminous

    December 31, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    We can now say the word “socialism?”

    ETA: Yes We Can!

  15. 15.

    Violet

    December 31, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    Didn’t you used to write at Red State, Cole? If you did, do you remember this guy?

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    December 31, 2013 at 3:36 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    We can now say the word “socialism?”

    Yes; it’s been fixed for a while now. Also, too, the Republicans have been tarring everything, no matter how innocuous, the Democrats do as socialism for so long that it’s started doing more to rehabilitate socialism than to convince people to abandon Democratic policies.

  17. 17.

    WereBear

    December 31, 2013 at 3:36 pm

    In other news, water is made of hydrogen and oxygen.

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    December 31, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    @WereBear:

    In other news, water is made of hydrogen and oxygen.

    That’s a dirty lie! Everyone knows there are only four elements, and water is one of them.

  19. 19.

    maya

    December 31, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    @janeform: Time for Langone, plus devout Cathoholic, Kooch Bros, to set Cardinal Dolan up in Avignon. Or, Newport News.

  20. 20.

    Citizen_X

    December 31, 2013 at 3:42 pm

    I’ll just leave this here: Claims of virgin births in U.S. near 1 percent: study

  21. 21.

    Yatsuno

    December 31, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    @Roger Moore: You stole my answer, you low-down dirty spy! :P

  22. 22.

    cmorenc

    December 31, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    It’s as if Caleb, Eric, and other hard-RW bloggers were perpetually engaged in a verbal version of “Jackass”, trying to one-up each other with who pull off the most abrasively obnoxious verbal stunt.

  23. 23.

    West of the Cascades

    December 31, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    I know that I’m supposed to be better than this, to have compassion even for those who don’t have compassion for others, to hope that everything works out well for everyone, but when I read about this asshole at RedState who persists in being an asshole about health insurance despite his own brush with death, well, all I want is to read his fucking obituary. Can he please go ahead and die now, preferably in a fire?

  24. 24.

    Cacti

    December 31, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    In case anyone isn’t paying attention, Melissa Harris Perry is the newest minority that the right wing wants purged from MSNBC.

    She forgot her place when speaking of the Romneys’ African grandchild.

  25. 25.

    Citizen_X

    December 31, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    @Citizen_X: argh. Lemme try again:

    Claims of virgin births in U.S. near 1 percent: study

    You will be shocked to learn that most of these girls are clueless about sex and contraception:

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    December 31, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    @cmorenc: It’s as if Caleb, Eric, and other hard-RW bloggers were perpetually engaged in a verbal version of “Jackass”, trying to one-up each other with who pull off the most abrasively obnoxious verbal stunt.

    You mean there’s something else to RW blogging? I thought that was the point.

  27. 27.

    Citizen_X

    December 31, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    @Citizen_X: Fuck it. I’m clueless today. Read the damn thing yerself.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    December 31, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    @West of the Cascades:
    A fire would be too quick. Something a little more leisurely, perhaps the rack.

  29. 29.

    scav

    December 31, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    @Citizen_X: Sharks demonstrably are capable of parthenogenesis and it’s likely their behavior is shared by their bipedal predatory freedom-loving so long as its theirs alone and they bear no responsibility for it kin.

  30. 30.

    Comrade Mary

    December 31, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    I’m taking a cue from the guy who wrote about Ebert for Esquire and listening to this instead.

    (Earlier this afternoon I was sorting through the family silverware I inherited after my Dad died. I got a call from one of my cousins to let me know that the last of my aunts just died this morning. We were never very close, but she was a good and sweet woman who will be missed a lot by my uncle, her son, and all those in their circle. This was the aunt my sister and I hadn’t seen for years and who we planned to visit this year, for sure. This year’s resolution: actually see the people I mean to see.)

  31. 31.

    WereBear

    December 31, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    @Ruckus: I’m feeling generous, holiday season and all.

    For the next year, having everyone he meets, frequent emails, new nickname… to remind him it’s the charity of liberals that kept him alive…

    that would be both awesome and enlightened.

    Because then, oh yes, he will burn. With humiliation.

  32. 32.

    danielx

    December 31, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    The Red State Editor that Mistermix was talking about has quite the history of being an asshole.

    Redundancy, Cole, redundancy! If he wasn’t an asshole, he wouldn’t be a Red State editor.

  33. 33.

    srv

    December 31, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    I miss the days of the fearful RedState Strike Force. Maybe if we got them uniforms.

    Peter Thiel’s Graph of the Year is even being lambasted by his glibertarian base at Hacker News.

  34. 34.

    MattF

    December 31, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    @janeform: Yeah, well, rich asshole. but it’s Cardinal Dolan’s reply that got my attention:

    CNBC also spoke to Dolan, who said he told Langone the unnamed donor’s concerns seemed based on “a misunderstanding of the Holy Father’s message.”

    “The pope loves poor people. He also loves rich people.’ … So I said, ‘Ken, thanks for bringing it to my attention. We’ve gotta correct to make sure this gentleman understands the Holy Father’s message properly.’ And then I think he’s gonna say, ‘Oh, OK. If that’s the case, count me in for St. Patrick’s Cathedral,'” Dolan said.

    You see, it’s just that there are so many more poor people than rich people, and there’s only so much Pope-love to go around.

  35. 35.

    Howlin Wolfe

    December 31, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    The Gawker website, or the layout of that article, I’m not sure which, is really crappy; or it really hates IE or the version I’m forced to use on my work ‘puter. There are orphan phrases and the thread of the narrative is all disjointed. The comments platform is a complete mystery. Apparently there are multiple “participants” but I am only able to view some of their comments. Clicking on anything that seems designed to reveal these other participants only results in my being ushered to the top of the page. Is it that way regardless of the browser?

  36. 36.

    MattF

    December 31, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    @Howlin Wolfe: Ugly on Safari too.

  37. 37.

    kc

    December 31, 2013 at 4:02 pm

    @Howlin Wolfe:

    All Gawker family sites suck mightily, across all platforms.

  38. 38.

    scav

    December 31, 2013 at 4:07 pm

    @MattF: It’s the Bishops and Cardinals self-evident Christian duty to give loving tongue baths constantly to the wealthy, and with the single Pope seemingly AWOL, they’re feeling deprived, despite the sheer number of other prostrate beanies. Poor poor neglected sensitive dears, having to whip out their choke-chain of Charity in this season of Mandatory Christian Lovingness and Smug Superiority.

  39. 39.

    Ruckus

    December 31, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    @WereBear:
    I don’t think you are being a little generous. I think, given his history that you are being way far too generous. Good for you though. Me? I dislike people who wear their assholes on top their shoulders. And then fart out their bullshit on a regular basis. Like this useless fuck.

  40. 40.

    Hal

    December 31, 2013 at 4:13 pm

    @Cacti: yeah, I just started seeing this story around. I perused some comments at gawker and jezebel and of course there is the typical “see! Libs are the real racists!” type comments.

    MSNBC has fired Bashir and Baldwin and suspended Olbermann and Schultz over various comments. The liberal media needs to stop running in fear over every ersatz comment made, especially about Romney. But oh hey, I see Sarah Palin is outraged, so that must mean this is important.

  41. 41.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 31, 2013 at 4:16 pm

    @janeform:

    What you do with assholes like Langone is put them in tumbrels.

  42. 42.

    scav

    December 31, 2013 at 4:16 pm

    @MattF: Oh, and a few Home Depot logos on the body of the crucified Christ up front and center of the Saint Patrick’s rood should bring in the donations presto! That’s high visibility territory up there.

  43. 43.

    MomSense

    December 31, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    @eric:

    I agree with you but Langone’s comment is just so infuriating. Is he implying that he would have totes felt sorry and offered assistance to poor people if the Pope hadn’t tried to exclude him?

    @Yatsuno:

    And if the wingnut is of the religious variety, quoting Acts 4-5 is sure to cause spitting and fuming. The short version is that the people are impressed by healings and miracles to follow the disciples. They are so filled with grace and things are going swimmingly because they give all that they have to the apostles–literally sell all their lands and goods and lay all the money at the Apostles feet. Everything is distributed to each according to his need. Things are great and everyone is happy except for this one couple who sell a possession and keep some of the money for themselves.And then Peter confronts them as being filled with Satan and lying to god–and they both drop dead on the spot and are buried next to each other. And then the Apostles went back to healing and miracles and people came from everywhere to be healed–kind of like the free health care clinics of their day.

  44. 44.

    Hungry Joe

    December 31, 2013 at 4:19 pm

    From all accounts Ebert was as kind and generous and big-hearted in person as he was in print (withering reviews notwithstanding). I think that’s part of what drives people like Howe ’round the bend — this very public LIBERAL is so obviously a great human being. Their circuits (what’s left of them) short out.

    BTW, I was once at a film/press thingy that Ebert also attended, and that man could put some real hurt on a buffet table.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    December 31, 2013 at 4:26 pm

    @Cacti:

    She forgot her place when speaking of the Romneys’ African grandchild.

    I tend to think that the non-adult kids of politicians are off limits. Unless the kid does something that would be newsworthy no matter who they are, they should be left alone.

    In this case MHP and her comedian guests were joking about how the African American grandson doesn’t look like the rest of the Romney clan. That’s not the kid’s fault and to go on and say she’d like to see him married to Kim and Kanye’s daughter is in poor taste. The child has the right to grow up and marry or not marry whoever he wants. Maybe he’s gay. Who knows. Leave his future life out of any discussion of lack of people of color in the Republican party.

    Melissa Harris-Perry is smarter than all that. She probably got caught up with her guests and joking as she might if she were at home or with friends, but doing that on her show was just dumb.

  46. 46.

    Cervantes

    December 31, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    @Citizen_X: I knew someone once who claimed more or less the same thing. She knew better, too — as did her very Catholic parents.

  47. 47.

    Cluttered Mind

    December 31, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    @Mudge: The French discovered a pretty decent cure for this particular strain of societal disease back in 1793.

  48. 48.

    The Pale Scot

    December 31, 2013 at 5:34 pm

    Since it seems that C2H5OH is the likely cause of Cal’s woes, will anyone point out to him that all the money he spends on booze could have probably covered his premium.

    When I was a professional drinker my monthly bar tab could have covered me easily.

    Brits never could hold their liquor.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    December 31, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    @srv:

    Peter Thiel’s Graph of the Year is even being lambasted by his glibertarian base at Hacker News.

    The bigger issue is that the decline in income for college graduates is primarily because of the shitty economy, not because of anything wrong with the long-term value of a college education. I guess that’s also a sign that the starting salary for a college graduate is a lousy measure of the value of an education, in much the same way that quarterly profits may be a bad way of measuring the value of a company. Oh, wait. No wonder modern businesspeople can’t see what’s wrong with this graph.

  50. 50.

    Mudge

    December 31, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    @Cluttered Mind: Well, maybe in 1793, but they failed to wipe it out, see Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

  51. 51.

    aimai

    December 31, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    @Cacti: That is a completely incorrect reading of the incident. Frankly, it was repulsive and you don’t have to be a right winger to think that. What were they thinking, for fuck’s sake, making fun of a newly adopted child that way? Speaking as the aunt of two children of another race I am simply aghast at the actions of all the guests. If they had wanted to discuss the Mormon Churches historical problem with AA’s and have a scholarly discussion about what this adoption means for a changed church that would have been totally fine. If they wanted to ignore this private family event that would have been fine. But to discuss it as though it were newsworthy simply because they can’t imagine that there are biracial and cross racial adoptions all the fucking time, even in rich white families? That was just cheap and stupid.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    December 31, 2013 at 8:10 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    That’s partly a journalist thing, though Ebert was probably in the top ranks among his colleagues. I swear that when I was attending press junkets, journalists would eat the lettuce leaves under the buffet. It was like being in the middle of a swarm of locusts.

    And if there were free drinks being offered …

  53. 53.

    TheBladeItselfIncites

    December 31, 2013 at 8:13 pm

    @MomSense:

    Jesus was clearly a RINO at best. I mean, all that free healthcare – and he didn’t even charge as much as a chicken. Not to mention the redistribution episode involving the loaves and the fishes!

  54. 54.

    Cacti

    December 31, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    @aimai:

    That is a completely incorrect reading of the incident. Frankly, it was repulsive and you don’t have to be a right winger to think that. What were they thinking, for fuck’s sake, making fun of a newly adopted child that way? Speaking as the aunt of two children of another race I am simply aghast at the actions of all the guests. If they had wanted to discuss the Mormon Churches historical problem with AA’s and have a scholarly discussion about what this adoption means for a changed church that would have been totally fine. If they wanted to ignore this private family event that would have been fine. But to discuss it as though it were newsworthy simply because they can’t imagine that there are biracial and cross racial adoptions all the fucking time, even in rich white families? That was just cheap and stupid.

    And predictably as ever, when the latest right wing whine about a liberal public figure starts, they can count on useful idiot liberals to lead the pack with the torches and pitchforks.

  55. 55.

    BruceFromOhio

    January 1, 2014 at 12:19 am

    @Cacti: It was a bad move. That you are unwilling or unable to see the difference between that and your pack analogy says more about you than anything else.

    Nicely played.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    January 1, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:
    I like that about liberals. We are able to see when we fuck up. We are able to discuss our fuck ups and learn from them. Conservatives/libertarians believe that they can do no wrong because their idiotolgy can do no wrong, it’s the rest of the world that fucks up everything. It’s an inhuman, infantile view of the world.

    You point out a perfect example.

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    January 1, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    @Ruckus:

    I like that about liberals. We are able to see when we fuck up. We are able to discuss our fuck ups and learn from them.

    Speaking of useful idiots, have fun helping the white wing collect another brown scalp in the name of high-minded principle.

    @BruceFromOhio:

    That you are unwilling or unable to see the difference between that and your pack analogy says more about you than anything else.

    Ditto.

    While Phil Robertson faces no consequence for saying black people were happy under Jim Crow, be sure to join Sarah Palin in demanding complete purity from every liberal voice. It shows how principled and non-partisan you can be in helping to advance white wing goals.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    January 1, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    @Cacti:

    Speaking of useful idiots, have fun helping the white wing collect another brown scalp in the name of high-minded principle.

    Yes, because no brown person EVER said anything fucking stupid or that needed to be called out.

    While Phil Robertson faces no consequence for saying black people were happy under Jim Crow, be sure to join Sarah Palin in demanding complete purity from every liberal voice. It shows how principled and non-partisan you can be in helping to advance white wing goals.

    Excellent point. Because pointing out some hated/hateful person’s hateful behavior ALWAYS excuses your own, or that of someone you like. And especially because the right wing’s pathological unwillingness or inability to call their own to account makes it A-OK for liberals to behave the same way.

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    January 1, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    Regarding all-around-nice-guy-and-shining-example-of-humanity Caleb Howe: when I first read the thread about him having “liver trouble,” I had (foolishly, it seems) assumed that he had liver cancer, which is a pretty fucking terrible thing to have. However, given how proud he is re: his downing of vodka and who-knows-what-else, perhaps my compassion was misplaced.

    Maybe he can blame it on Mickey Mantle, because he sure as shit would never blame himself for anything.

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